TO GET THE PHONE / DOOR

Hello and welcome back to the Daily Vitamin. 

Yesterday we looked at some uses of get to indicate the beginning of something: 'to become or begin to be' (to get drunk, to get dirty, etc.). Today we look at another very common use of get; this time to mean to answer the door or to answer the telephone.

If you're at home and the phone rings, rather than say "I'll answer it," we usually say "I'll get it." The same applies when we hear a knock at the door. To indicate that we're going to answer the door, we usually say "I'll get it!" and not "I'll answer it." Saying "I'll get it" lets everyone else in the house know that you're on your way to opening the door.

For the same situation we might say "ya voy" in Spanish. For a ringing telephone, we might say "ya lo cojo" (in Spanish) or "ja l'agafo" (in Catalan). "I'll get it" works for both situations in English.

⇒ In order to get some writing practice, I encourage you to write your own short dialogue with this use of GET. You can post your dialogue to one of our social media sites (Facebook or Bluesky) and we will give you feedback about your writing ASAP. You can also post your questions on our social media sites.

Enjoy the rest of your day!